Wednesday, February 29, 2012

On the one hand, I'm pleased that the Toronto Public Library would even consider such a subject. On the other hand, the wording of the promo unwittingly reveals exactly where the TPL stands (i.e. decidedly left-of-center):

Right Angles: Freedom of Speech and the Conservative Mind

Does the mainstream media have a liberal bias? Has the rise of conservative media given voice to a silenced group, or made the discussion of current affairs unnecessarily tendentious?
Join PEN Canada and panelists, David Akin, Barbara Kay, Christopher Hume and Marci McDonald for what will be a lively discussion moderated by John Lorinc.

I oppose your decision to cut federal funding for the successful immigration settlement program administered by Palestine House. This decision is not based on the success of the program (which your department has recognized), but on politics. I oppose any move by the Canadian government to penalize civil society and cultural organizations in Canada based on their legitimate political views. This represents an attack on free speech and free expression in Canada, and is contributing to the steady criminalization of Palestine solidarity initiatives in Canada. I call on you to reverse your decision and to restore immediately the federal funding for Palestine House's immigration settlement program.

Last week Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that the "most fortunate Americans" should pay more in taxes for the "privilege of being an American." One can debate different ways of balancing the budget. But Mr. Geithner's argument highlights an unfortunate and very destructive instinct that seems to permeate the Obama administration about the respective roles of citizens and their government. His position has three problems: one philosophical, one empirical, and one logical.

Philosophically, the concept that being an American is a "privilege" upends the whole basis on which America was founded. Privileges are things granted to one individual by another, higher-ranking, individual. For example, in my house my children's use of the family car is a privilege. One presumes Mr. Geithner believes that the "privilege" of being an American is granted by the presumably higher-ranking, governing powers that be.

This is an age-old view that our Founding Fathers rejected. First, they argued that the basic rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (i.e., economic liberty) were natural rights, endowed by our Creator, not by government. Second, the governing powers do not out-rank the citizens. Rather it is the citizens who grant government officials their "just powers." As Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, governments are instituted among men based on their consent in order to secure the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The notion that a governing authority grants privileges to those it governs directly contradicts Jefferson's declaration.

But it is this same notion that recently allowed the Health and Human Services Department to order religious institutions to pay for things they find abhorrent. Religious freedom is presumably a "privilege" that can be revoked for some transient and novel public-policy reason...

The astonishing thing is not that the Toronto Star's Harpoon Siddiqui penned another of his trademark screeds chiding kafirs for their ignorance/insolence; heck he does that sort of thing all the time. No, the astonishing thing is that the kafirs, sorry, thedhimmis of Embassy Magazine thought so much of his musings re torched Korans (eg: "To desecrate the Scripture or to insult the Prophet is to scar the soul of a Muslim"--hey, thanks for the heads-up, H.) that they decided to repackage them for their elitist readers.

Don't draw Mohammed's face.Don't let the Koran flame.Don't snort if the Jews we blame.Muslims'll rage and go nuts!Don't support Zionists.Their lies are a disgrace.Drum them from the human raceOr Muslims'll rage and go nuts!Don't go speak blasphemyEven if you have the guts.Kafir, mind your Q's and P'sOr "scarred" ones'll rage and go nuts!

What will it take to convince supporters of Peace Now the imperative of their organization’s name depends on the Arabs rather than the Jews? After 18+ years of Arab terrorism and rejection of peace offers since the Oslo Accords, it’s hard to say whether anything the Palestinians could do or say would cause them to rethink their myopic view of the world. But give Americans for Peace Now’s Lara Friedman a little credit. After schlepping to an Arab League conference on Jerusalem, she at least had the wit to notice that just about everybody else there was focused on delegitimizing Israel, denouncing its existence within any borders and denying thousands of years of Jewish history.

However, it’s hard not to chuckle a little bit at the indignant tone affected by Friedman in her op-ed published in the Forward as she conveys her shock and dismay to discover the Arab world believes Jews have no rights in Jerusalem or any other part of Israel. She and her group had so convinced themselves all it will take to create peace “now” was for Israelis to support a two-state solution and negotiate, it appears they never took the time or effort to realize the other side has little interest in peace, now or at any other time. This gives her piece the tone of a parody worthy of The Onion even though it was written in deadly earnest. Indeed, it must be considered in writing such an article she has demonstrated the utter cluelessness of her group better than anything the group’s critics could have come up with...

Since Section 13 is still in effect, this (see below) could well prompt a "hate speech"/hurt feelings complaint to the Canadian "human rights" commish:

It did cause quite a kerfuffle in Egypt, where the guy who posted it online was hauled before a judge (for "insulting Islam," of course) by outraged Salafists. Fortunately--and unusually--common sense has prevailed:

CAIRO—An Egyptian court on Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit brought by an ultraconservative Muslim lawyer who accused a Christian tycoon of insulting Islam by posting an online cartoon of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie in a face veil.

Telecom and media mogul Naguib Sawiris angered Muslim hard-liners in June by relaying the cartoon on his Twitter account. The picture was a parody about the growing influence of Islamists in Egypt following the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising last year.

The court dismissed the case and fined the plaintiffs less than $10 for the court's time over the matter...

Too bad the mogul had felt the need to grovel to the "anti-blasphemy" types:

After the cartoon sparked an uproar among conservatives, Sawiris tweeted an apology and removed the post. “I apologize for those who don't take this as a joke; I just thought it was a funny picture; no disrespect meant. I am sorry,” he tweeted.

But ultraconservative Islamists who follow a strict Salafi interpretation of Islam blasted the cartoon as a mockery of Islam.

Actually, it's not a mockery of Islam. It's a mockery of Islamists, a distinction that is obviously lost on the daffy Salafis.

If things go according to plan, Section 13, the provision that hobbles free speech and empowers a retinue of hack censors, will be a goner by spring. Halifax opiner Paul Shneidreit is among those looking forward to its demise:

Some critics say abolishing hate speech provisions in the human rights act would mean prosecutions could in future only come under the Criminal Code, placing a greater burden of proof on complainants.

But what they term a bug, as the saying goes, I’d call a feature. One of the biggest problems has been the abuse of the current system by complainants who bear none of the financial costs and human rights bodies all too eager to spend years processing accusations that — using common sense — clearly lack merit.

Other critics say not everyone has the funds to go to court. But in a criminal hate speech case, it’s the Crown’s case — and the Crown’s dime. All too often, under the current system, it’s the accused who don’t have the money to defend themselves or fight tribunal rulings.

Freedom of expression is too precious — and too fundamental in upholding all other rights — to allow what is a democratic cornerstone to be undermined by an intrinsically flawed system based on political correctness and hurt feelings.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

It could be the lighting, but Obama's hair is looking alarmingly white in this photo. But maybe it could work to his advantage by making his eventual Republican challenger (whether Mitt or Rick) look like unseasoned young dark-haired bucks by comparison.

Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, by Jana Sterbak, is displayed in Paris in 2011. Sterbak is one of the 2012 winners of the Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Art. (Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images)

Though many Canadians think the Shari`ah-compliant funds are not profitable, Khalid says there are many "wonderful companies" that can help investors reap big dividends, including technology companies.

In September, 2002, Dr. Mattson, then ISNA's Veep (four years later she became the first "revert" and the first female to helm the Muslim Brotherhood creation) opined on PBS

that she did not see “any difference” between Christian leaders criticizing Islam or al Qaeda on the one hand, and Osama bin Laden citing “Islamic theology to justify violence against Americans” on the other.

She has also said, a propos American support for Israel, that

The American government has not criticized sufficiently the brutality of the Israeli government, believing that it needs to be ‘supportive’ of the Jewish state. The result is that oppression, left unchecked, can increase to immense proportions, until the oppressed are smothered with hopelessness and rage…

These protests are not really about religion, as offensive as it is to burn any holy book. They’re about poor, disenfranchised people expressing anger over lack of progress and security and finding an easy vehicle for that rage.

Futhermore:

The image of burned holy texts is not only deeply offensive to religious Muslims but a symbol of the terrible injustices that ordinary Afghans face as they struggle to live under horrific circumstances.

Why can't it be both--poor, disenfranchised religious Muslims who despise the kafir "occupier" finding an easy vehicle for their rage when they learn about some accidentally incinerated holy books? And surely whatever this episode is about, it is about religion--a supremacist religion which requires complete, unthinking submission, and which can therefore engender the kind of frenzied behaviour currently on display.

From the "There's no Separation of Mosque and State Dep't" (via Yahoo!):

Jonathon Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, reports on a disturbing case in which a state judge in Pennsylvania threw out an assault case involving a Muslim attacking an atheist for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Judge Mark Martin, an Iraq war veteran and a convert to Islam, threw the case out in what appears to be an invocation of Sharia law.

The incident occurred at the Mechanicsburg, Pa., Halloween parade where Ernie Perce, an atheist activist, marched as a zombie Muhammad. Talaag Elbayomy, a Muslim, attacked Perce, and he was arrested by police.

Judge Martin threw the case out on the grounds that Elbayomy was obligated to attack Perce because of his culture and religion. Judge Martin stated that the First Amendment of the Constitution does not permit people to provoke other people. He also called Perce, the plaintiff in the case, a "doofus." In effect, Perce was the perpetrator of the assault, in Judge Martin's view, and Elbayomy the innocent. The Sharia law that the Muslim attacker followed trumped the First Amendment.

Words almost fail.

I believe it was the Ayatollah Khomeini who once observed: "There are no doofuses (doofi?) in Islam." How right he was!

It is hardly a stretch to point out the connection between this case and something all too common in Muslim countries where insults or perceived attacks on Islam — such as the recent incident in Afghanistan — are treated as justifying riots and murder. For all of the unsubstantiated talk about a rising tide of Islamophobia, critics of Islam are still far more likely to be subjected to attacks than are Muslims. Like all Americans, Muslims are entitled to the full protection of the law for the expression of their beliefs. But attempts to enshrine their notion of what is a sacrilege into secular law are a path to the destruction of the Constitution.

Monday, February 27, 2012

The Grade 8 students are currently completing their footwear sculpture made from recycled materials. Upon completion, students will write an artist statement to explore what elements and principles of design were applied to their sculpture.

How warm is your home when you wake up? Could the thermostat be lower?

Did you leave the water running while you were brushing your teeth this morning?

Are your clothes made from recycled materials?

Was your breakfast made from local ingredients? How far did the fruit on your cereal travel to get to your table?

If you stopped for a beverage at a the local coffee shop, did you use their paper cup or did you bring your own?

How did you get to school? Did you walk, drive alone, use public transit or carpool? Could you have carpooled ?

What did you bring for lunch and how is it packaged?

What are you doing to reduce, reuse and recycle to lessen your carbon footprint?

How can we help reduce our carbon footprint in terms of our daily choices?

Upon reading this missive I've decided to look into ways of increasing my carbon footprint. By a lot. I'm also planning to take my son to see the Picasso exhibit when it comes to the AGO. Not only because he's fascinated by that artist's Guernica, but because it could well be the only art history he learns all year in an "art" class where art takes a backseat to eco-gobbledygook.

Apologies for an inadvertent torching? Fuggedaboutit. The above is what Robert Spencer suggests rational people (none of whom, apparently, can be found in the Obama White House) should say to the irate thug-nutters of Afghanistan.

A piece on the canada.com site claims that, on the whole, immigrants to Canada (from such wretched backwaters as Burma and Somalia) are healthier that the native-born, but that living here--get this--causes their health to deteriorate. The article pushes the multiculti dogma that we're so lucky to have these folks arrive on our doorstep (and take advantage of all our modern amenities, including "free" health care), while the new arrivals aren't nearly as fortunate. (In which case, why come here at all?)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

I just know this one--a story in the NatPo about schoolkids in multiculti Toronto reaching out to kids in a de-Gaddafi'd Libya--is supposed to make me feel all warm and snuggly inside, but for some strange reason it gives me the creeps. Maybe you can help me figure out why I'm immune to its charm:

Swirls of Arabic fill the pages; many of the children decorated their letters with drawings of rebels shooting machine guns, carts stacked with missiles, grenade launchers, tanks and pickup trucks with missile launchers in their flatbeds. There were many drawings of Libya’s historic flag, restored after Gaddafi’s defeat.

The Libyan children come from big families: most have six to eight siblings. Their letters have an earnest, didactic quality that seems odd flowing from the pens of tweens — especially to Canadian eyes. The letters are less stories of daily life than rhetorical exhortations to the glory of the uprising, which they say began in Al Bayda on Feb. 16, 2011, and its heroes.

“Now we feel there is a new vision, a new, beautiful Libya, and we start witnessing the changes every day,” writes Yosra Mohammed El Brasi, who is in Grade 7. “I have never seen anything like this in my life. Suddenly we feel we have a flag that we could be proud of, an anthem we could be proud of. Our parents kept the flag and the anthem alive in their hearts, but we were never able to talk about it. Gaddafi the dictator never gave people a chance to express their feeling. Now we can express our own feelings and speak freely.”

One letter describes mercenaries killing, raping and stealing from the town; another describes missiles hitting houses.

The letters left a strong impression on the Toronto students, who can rattle off dates and details of the Libyan uprising. It has also made them cherish their own lifestyles.

“It made me feel, living in Canada, that many children are not as fortunate as us,” said Cheryl Cheung, 11.

How right you are, Cheryl. And how crushing it would be for you and your impressionable classmates to have to confront the truth--that the Libyans who "won" the war with NATO's help were every bit as brutal and bloodthirsy as the wicked potentate they chased down and killed like a rat in a hole.

Hey, I think I just figured out what about this story bugged me so much: its refusal to let the truth encroach on--and derail--the speeding train of heartwarming mush. (Sometimes it takes me a moment or two, but I do get there, eventually.)

Seeming to give credence to Orwell’s observation that “some ideas are so stupidthat only an intellectual could believe them,” Harvard’s Kennedy School will be hosting a student-run conference in early March called “Israel/Palestine and the One-State Solution,” yet another example of how purported scholarship about the Middle East is frequently biased and diluted by ideology.

The one-state solution to the issue of what to do with the ever-suffering Palestinians is not so much an authentic, or even rational, plan for effecting statehood for Palestinian Arabs; instead, it proposes to do with votes and demography the same thing that hostile Arab armies and the PLO have themselves tried to do to Israel for the past 64 years; namely, extirpate the Jewish state — not by driving it into the sea with arms and military might, but by subsuming its Jewish identity in a sea of returning Palestinian refugees coming into to Israel to form a bi-national state.

While most in the sentient world have recognized that the only workable solution to the Israel/Palestinian issue is what has been called the “two-state solution,” that is, Israel and a new Palestinian state “living side by side in peace,” nineteen speakers at the Kennedy School conference will propose satisfactory social justice will be achieved only by deconstructing sovereign Israel and transforming it into a new state with millions of radicalized new Palestinian Arabs as citizens with equal civil and human rights, and the ability, of course, to vote on what form the future Israel will take.

Only a really "smart" intellectual (or a really big Jew-hater--or both) would want to scotch the only functional, productive part of a dysfunctional landscape for the sake of some demented ideal of "social justice."

As for sentient beings seeing a "two-state solution" as the only viable one--respectfully, I must beg to differ with the good professor. Brimming over with sentience as I am, I know that as long as Muslims hew to the Koran and its depiction of Jews as the lowest of the low, the devout will never be able to countenance a Jewish flag flying over what they consider to be their land.

The creator of the popular children’s character Fireman Sam has told how he was accused of racism after making a light-hearted remark at Gatwick airport.

Dave Jones said he experienced an ‘Orwellian nightmare’ after commenting on the ease with which a woman with her face covered by a hijab, another form of the burqa, had walked through security controls.

As he placed his scarf and other items into a tray to pass through an X-ray scanner, he quipped to an official: ‘If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.’

To his astonishment, he was met on the other side of the barrier byofficials who detained him for an hour in an attempt to force him to apologise and the police were called.

Mr Jones, 67, who was supposed to be meeting his daughters, said: ‘Something like George Orwell’s 1984 now seems to have arrived in Gatwick airport.

Read it today in the Toronto Star as the paper's resident shill for the Islamic civilization slams the kafir for his failure to submit like a good little dhimmi exercise all due cultural sensitivity:

Cultural illiteracy continues to hobble Americans. Their nighttime raids violate one of the most dearly-held Afghan traditions, that of the privacy of their homes, especially women.

Equally offensive is to have dogs sniff at their possessions, especially food and clothing.
There has also been the desecration of the dead, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

In 2010, some Americans posed with corpses of Afghan civilians gunned down by rogue soldiers. This year, a video emerged of Marines in combat gear urinating on three Afghan corpses.

Afghans also know that some of the scandalous tactics of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were used in Afghan detention camps.

There’s the desecration of Islam as part of the cultural warfare on Muslims in the post-9/11 period.

The 2006 Danish cartoons were designed to defame Muhammad, as per the self-admission of their creators.

That same year, Pope Benedict made demonstrably false assertions about the Qur’an and Muhammad, statements he later apologized for, in language not all that different from what we’ve heard in the last few days. His Holiness was sorry, he had not meant to utter those unholy words, had not meant to offend anyone, etc.

Man, we suck. No wonder those on the receiving end of our blasphemy hate us so.

Update: "As a columnist, Siddiqui said he has worked to “give a voice to the voiceless; that is what we do at the Star." So that's what he's doing. And here I was thinking he was giving voice to a sharia agenda that comes through only too loud and clear. Goes to show what I know. (You can see why Harpoon the altruist, voice-giver to the voiceless, keeps scooping up medals from the clueless.)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

So far all the countries associated with what had been dubbed "the Arab Spring" have elected governments which hew to sharia, a set of laws that are the antithesis of Western-style democracy. And yet there's silly Hillary Clinton making an utter ass of herself in Tunisia--the place where the purported warming trend began--by pretending that A) the "spring" thing is still a go, and B) that the populace hasn't opted for sharia:

Protecting democracy is the duty of every citizen," Clinton said. "For young people here and across the region, this is a special responsibility. You were fearless on the front lines of the revolution, enduring tear gas and beatings. It takes a different kind of courage to be guardians of your new democracy."

Unbelievable. But even more unbelievably she said this:

"Transitions can be derailed and detoured to new autocracies," she told a town hall with Tunisian youth. "The victors of revolutions can become their victims. It is up to (you) to resist the calls of demagogues, to build coalitions, to keep faith in the system even when your candidates lose at the polls."

She recalled her own political loss to now-President Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries in 2008 and how she had rejected calls from her supporters not to quit the race and ultimately accepted his offer to become America's top diplomat.

Spoken by someone whose ego is such that she didn't--she couldn't--resist the siren call, and who as a result makes a fool of herself at a demagogue's behest in situations such as this. An irony that was obviously lost on her.

In a recent radio interview (it begins just past the half-way mark), Ayatollah-aficionado Zafar Bangash criticizes the NDP for not standing up for and behind Iran. He tells the interviewer that "a pack of lies" are being told been told about his blameless homeland for the sake of an "illegal and immoral war" that's being pushed by the U.S. and Israel.

Thank heaven we kafirs have Zafar to cut through the crapola and explain things as they really are!

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says there is no easy answer to the problem of rising energy prices, dismissing Republican plans to address the problem as little more than gimmicks.

"We know there's no silver bullet that will bring down gas prices or reduce our dependence on foreign oil overnight," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "But what we can do is get our priorities straight and make a sustained, serious effort to tackle this problem."

Oil prices are approaching last year's highs as tensions increase over Iran's nuclear program. The rise pushed gasoline prices Friday to a national average of $3.65 a gallon, the highest ever for this time of year. A spike in gas prices is normal in spring, but it came earlier than usual this year in large part because of world fears that the growing confrontation with Iran will crimp oil supplies. Iran is the world's third-largest crude supplier.

Rising oil prices weigh on the economy, pushing leisure and business travel costs higher. Every 1-cent increase in the price of gasoline costs the economy $1.4 billon, analysts say.

This from a man whose "Hope and Change" was the biggest gimmick/bumper sticker of 'em all. At least "Drill" and "Go Keystone!" aren't vapid slogans but could actually alleviate the problem. Which, from Obama's standpoint--the standpoint of a man who actually wants oil prices to go through the roof so that people will turn to green "solutions"--is precisely what's wrong with them. And speaking of gimmicks, I think Stephen Sondheim put it best:

Friday, February 24, 2012

Mark Steyn, who filed this one from Down Under, says that "human rights"--the fake ones granted by increasingly statist governments--will be the death of us:

The transformation of "human rights" from restraints upon state power into a pretext for state power is nicely encapsulated in the language of Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which states that everyone has the right "to receive free compulsory education." Got that? You have the human right to be forced to do something by the government.

Commissar [Kathleen] Sebelius isn't the only one interested in "striking the appropriate balance" between individual liberty and state compulsion. Everyone talks like that these days. For Canada's Chief Censor, Jennifer Lynch, freedom of expression is just one menu item in the great all-you-can-eat salad bar of rights, so don't be surprised if we're occasionally out of stock. Instead, why not try one of our tasty nutritious rights du jour? Like the human right to a transsexual labiaplasty, or the human right of McDonald's employees not to have to wash their hands after visiting the bathroom. Commissar Lynch puts it this way:

"The modern conception of rights is that of a matrix with different rights and freedoms mutually reinforcing each other to build a strong and durable human rights system."

That would be a matrix as in some sort of intricate biological sequencing very few people can understand? Or a Matrix as in the illusory world created to maintain a supine citizenry by all-controlling government officials? The point is, with so many pseudo-"rights" bouncing around, you need a bigger and bigger state: Individual rights are less important than a "rights system" – i.e., a government bureaucracy.

This perversion of rights is killing the Western world...

Can't wait for the Matrix display in our "human rights" museum. Also--I hear its cafeteria will have a killer salad bar.

Well, she wanted some McDonald's But couldn't even cruise a mile toward it.Seems she forgot that gas cost way too muchAnd now it seemed she couldn't afford it.And with the prices kiting sky-highLooks like folks are gonna soon want to hoard it.And we'll be effed, effed, effed 'Til the voters take the White House away.

Well, you knew all along Obama walked, spoke and thought like Alinsky.But he's so cute that, well, shoot!, You up and swooned and then all fell for his spin-sky.And now you're payin' the price--But will it mean that he is soon a has-been-sky?'Cuz we'll be effed, effed, effed 'til the votersTake his White House away.

Well, you nixed the Keystone pipeline-- Would've brought the people great relief now.And your focus on "renewables"Quite simply it's beyond our belief now.So now the question is:What will we do to end our--And bring you some--grief now?'Cuz we'll be effed, effed, effed 'til we votersTake your White House away.

OnIslam reports that a Chicago-based American Muslim "outreach" group--Gain Peace--is "trying to counter growing hostile sentiments in the Republican presidential campaigns." It's unclear which Islamist moneybags is financing its work, but it must be someone with deep pockets since it involves TV ads, which as we know cost a bundle. Here's a Gain Peace ad from last year which blows smoke dispels some "myths" about Islamic law (for the purposes of gaining "peace"--the peace that comes following the world's total capitulation to Islam, that is).

KABUL (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators marched towards the palace of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Friday, as a fourth day of protests erupted over the burning of Korans at a NATO base, with riot police and soldiers on high alert.

One protester was wounded by police gunfire, Reuters witnesses said.

Police fired into the air to try to disperse the crowd of men throwing stones and chanting "Death to America!" and "Long live Islam!" after they left the city's Blue Mosque following Friday prayers.

Friday is a holy day and the official weekly holiday in Afghanistan and mosques in the capital drew large crowds, with police in pick-up trucks posted on nearby streets.

Crowds of about 700 protesters also gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad and the volatile southeastern province of Ghazni, where people chanted "We will defend the Koran!," Reuters witnesses said.

U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.

Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

Afghanistan wants NATO to put those responsible on public trial...

If Obama had the sense or the stones (which, alas, he does not) he would sent the Afghans another letter. This one would say: Dear Afghans. Kindly stick your public trial where the crescent moon--and sharia--don't ever shine.

A senior IAEA expert team is returning from Iran after two days of discussions with Iranian officials held on 20 and 21 February 2012. The meeting followed previous discussions held on 29 to 31 January 2012.

During both the first and second round of discussions, the Agency team requested access to the military site at Parchin. Iran did not grant permission for this visit to take place.

Intensive efforts were made to reach agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran's nuclear programme, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions. Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document.

"It is disappointing that Iran did not accept our request to visit Parchin during the first or second meetings," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said. "We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached."

"We engaged in a constructive spirt"--big whoop! Who cares about that when the Ayatollah remains committed to building his destructive nukes?

Iran’s slow and steady progress for two decades has demonstrated beyond frantic rhetorical efforts at denial that diplomacy has not only been futile, but has provided Iran political cover and legitimacy while it pursued its nuclear objectives. Even more important, negotiations and the imposition of weak, ineffective sanctions have given Iran time to reach the point where its nuclear activities are broad and deep, and it is close to winning the strategically important race to the nuclear-weapons finish line. President Obama’s own Director of National IntelligenceJames R. Clapper testified to the Senate in January that “the sanctions as imposed so far have not caused [the Iranians] to change their behavior or their policy.” Public assertions and actions by China, India, Turkey and others make clear that new financial and oil-related sanctions also will come essentially to naught.

This ongoing failure also demonstrates why the notion, still dominant in Europe and the Obama administration, that Iran can be trusted with a “peaceful” nuclear program if it renounces weapons capabilities is delusional and dangerous.

In the Ceeb's toxic leftist ethos, the ends--exacting "justice" for Palestinian "victims"--justifies the means--doing dirt to their depraved Zionist "victimizers." All while claiming to be unbiased, of course. Sun Media's Eric Duhaime explains how it works:

He even stated there was an “appearance of bias” and pushed his mandate as ombudsman to its limit by inviting the management to an in-depth discussion with Lamarche on her arguments and findings.

Unfortunately, it was not Lamarche’s first misstep in this regard.

Last November, in three other decisions, the ombudsman rebuked the same reporter following complaints from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

CBC/Radio-Canada even had to admit that a quote included in one of her reports had been completely fabricated. The source, simply presented as Maurice, actually never said what Lamarche reported.

Diffusing information about the most publicized conflict in the world is not an easy task.

Unfortunately, there are practically no other French Canadians that have the privilege of being paid to live there and report on what’s going on in that hot region.

When the leftist biases are expressed daily on the Crown corporation’s airwaves on national issues, there is at least a counterweight in other media to allow listeners to hear both sides and form their own opinions.

This is not the case in French Canada with news from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

As much as we commend the ombudsman’s diligence in this matter, we need to question the laxness of CBC’s management, which refuses to discipline its delinquent reporter...

Discipline her? I predict she'll get a raise or a promotion, or that she'll make a lateral move to Al Jazeera, which has recruited a number of Ceebers (the Ceeb serving as something of an A-J farm team).

And since the POTUS is so good at vocals, he also sent Karzai a recording of this McCartney karaoke:

We're so sorry, Mr. Karzai,We're so sorry that we went and burnt those books,Oh, yes!We're so sorry, Mr. Karzai.Didn't mean to do it and we knowIt's causing such a mess.We're so sorry and we promiseNot to do it anymore.We're so sorry, Mr. Karzai,Please forgive us and deliver pardonEven if you're sore...

"In the letter ... the president also expressed our regret and apologies over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled at Bagram Airbase," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, Reuters reported.

Karzai said an American officer had acted "out of ignorance and with poor understanding" of the Qur’an’s importance, a presidential statement said.

Karzai's office said an investigation into the Qur’an burning would most likely be concluded later on Thursday.

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy and there could be further trouble on Friday when the weekly prayers are held.

Has anyone in Washington, or on the campaign hustings, or anywhere else in the USA noticied that, not only the Taliban, but also 20 members of the Afghan parliament are exhorting Afghans to wage jihad against Uncle Sam?

At a time when resurgent, supremacist Islam is rising in the East and creeping into the West; a time when Israel faces an existential threat from an Atomic Ayatollah, the annual week of Zionhass that blights university calendars and campuses will be celebrated in more cities than ever. They include:

The Deadline blog says the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pulled Cohen's tickets for the event until it receives a promise that he will not turn up in character as the Saddam Hussein/Muammar Gaddafi-style autocrat. "Unless they're assured that nothing entertaining is going to happen on the red carpet, the Academy is not admitting Sacha Baron Cohen to the show," studio Paramount told the site.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

If you didn't think a dreadful concept--a museum devoted to, of all things, "human rights"--could get any worse, think again:

If Eco Friends of Canada has its way, dozens of animal and environmental groups from across Canada will converge at the new, luxurious, 260,000 square foot Canadian Museum of Human Rights site in Winnipeg. Their goal will be to synthesize a new, synergistic, 21st century global economy.

Given the recent decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Accord, a project of this scope and magnitude would reaffirm Canada's commitment to preserving Earth’s ecosystem. This project will also address the systemic failure of our obsolete, 20th century zero-sum global economy.

WireService.ca Press Release - Feb 19, 2012 - EFC has contacted various organizations and individuals across Canada and asked them what they would like to see and/or be in this epicentre of animal and environmental stewardship. Those who are invited to join the consortium will feature the best of the best with expertise in specific fields of study.

The plan is to bring these diverse groups and individuals together under one roof to create synergy that will fuel a sustainable, green and vibrant economy in the 21st century. Among the invitees are the Assembly of First Nations, high-profile nature guru Dr. David Suzuki, Earthsave Canada, PETA, the Humane Society, Ducks Unlimited, pet breeders, earth-friendly energy & technology researchers, plus various other groups that 20th century thinkers would not immediately associate with ecology or economics. Avant garde doesn’t begin to describe the syntheses that will take place here once Ottawa gives the official green light to this project.

It is EFC’s desire to relocate the cash-strapped Canadian Museum for Human Rights project to the expanding Winnipeg Convention Centre so that construction at the Forks National Historic Site can resume as soon as possible. The CMHR will cease operations at the end of this fiscal year, March 31, 2012, and has already begun to scale back their project. Their tentative goal is to feature a Holocaust exhibit in 2014 and begin indoctrinating students through their national student travel program. The expansion at the Winnipeg Convention Centre should be completed by early 2015...

Looks like the mausoleum won't only be a place where "human rights" go to die. It will become a magnet for every nutty, utopian, tree-hugging, Suzuki-loving, crypto-Marxist, Turtle Island PETA loony in the land. Let's all pray the Harper government has the sense to tell these, er, "environmental stewards," to find some other vessel to hijack.

How is it that in 2012, the Canadian government is still ignoring its treaty responsibilities? How do we education and increase public awareness about this and take action through our curriculum to combat these inequities? Keynote Speakers:Joanne Dallaire, educator, and Jules Koostachin, educator and activist artist. Both are speakers from Attawapisakat First Nation. Following the keynote, small group sessions will provide participants with discussion points and the launch of a brand new curriculum resource for K-12 classrooms. Foodshare will provide refreshments.